JohnB. wrote:Yes that & the " used surgery towels after they can no longer laundered"!!

I kinda wondered about that myself. Those I wouldn't use - even a surgeon has some pride.......

SonVolt wrote:The good news is brown coagulated blood stains look almost identical to coffee after a trip through the wash

You wash your coffee???

bluesman wrote:I kinda wondered about that myself. Those I wouldn't use - even a surgeon has some pride.......

I'm a surgeon and both the towels and bins idea give me the creeps. I've put plenty of unpleasant specimens in the surgical trays and the towels...eesh. When you consider MRSA, VRE, now CRE and all the viral agents, there's no amount of bleach or alkylated cleaning products that make me feel good about putting those items in my kitchen.

Fortunately, I retired from surgery just as the hazards were becoming serious. Personal protective equipment came into use long after I finished residency, and I was witness to the "discovery" of HIV, hep C, and many other wonderful reasons that I'm not horribly sad to have stopped when I did. I survived a few decades as a surgeon at a level 1 trauma center with neither disease nor litigation. It's a miracle

I can say with great conviction that coffee got me through my career with much more equanimity than I would otherwise have had. I shudder to think of the volume that's passed from cup to kidneys since I started medical school, and I'm eternally grateful that I've always been able to get espresso that was drinkable or better near the hospitals in which I've worked. One of the great things about being an academic is that there's usually good coffee on major campuses, and I've only worked at the 2 largest university hospital systems in our region since I entered residency.

As this thread is about improving workflow, I have to say that many lab and hospital utensils, vessels, containers etc have facilitated my having coffee when and where I needed it. A large OR basin makes a great dry sink in the doctors' lounge, and you can boil water in an autoclave. Some lab glassware makes excellent drinking vessels, too. I never tried to steam milk with the exhaust vent from a steam sterilizer, but I was sorely tempted to try on many occasions (and may still do so one day just to prove that it can be done).

I've been temped to brew coffee in the glassware in my Wife's middle school science lab, but I know she wouldn't let me.

When I had a lever in my cubicle, I kept a large plastic drink cup from a fast food joint so that I could dump out my waste water and empty the boiler of my La Peppina at the end of the day to be dumped in a not-so-nearby sink. Brewing espresso without a nearby sink can be done, if you get creative.